Design your time for your mind, body, and work

Do you feel as if you are in a constant battle with your daily schedule and workload? Reacting, on the defensive, driven by ‘the system.’ No control; no time. Constantly dealing with things ‘happening to you?’

Would you rather be staying ahead of things ‘by design?’ Where your mind, body, and work are in synchrony and flow?[i]

The secrets lie in when we do things and how we anticipate them.

Over the past 2 years, I achieved this mind-body-work flow by applying these principles:

• Align tasks with the ideal time of day to complete them
• Use breaks wisely, and
• Forecast and manage your time like an expense budget

The first two draw on scientific discoveries about the role time plays in our lives that Daniel Pink discusses in his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. He states:

when it comes to when we do things, we don’t really think about it that much. [we say] ‘It doesn't really matter.’ And my point is it matters… It matters significantly. [ii]

His findings show that adjusting when you perform a task can reduce performance variations by 20% and boost performance by the equivalent of being drunk. [iii]

In applying the first two principles, I also learned how to better use data to decide how to spend time – the third principle.

In this post, I will discuss these three principles and how I put them into practice by:

• Reorganizing the to-do list,
• Blocking the best times for independent work,
• Taking breaks and pacing the day.
• Maintaining a work/time allocation forecast.

I’m hopeful what I share can help you better achieve the synchrony and flow between your mind, your body, and your work.

PRINCIPLES

I. Aligning tasks with your energy throughout the day

In the following two videos, created in 2018, Pink describes some of his findings that became essential to my daily routine:

• Interview on the PBS NewsHour This video is approximately 6 minutes long.
• Lecture at the RSA (Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). The link will begin halfway through the video. I recommend viewing the next 9 minutes. (From 16:50 to 25:26)

As Pink describes in these videos, research shows that each person has a peak, trough, and recovery in their performance each day. The timing and order of these phases varies based on your chronotype: when your body prefers to sleep and when you are most alert.

Most people have their peak in the morning, trough in the afternoon, and recovery from late afternoon into the evening.

Approximately 21% of the population (the night owls) experience the phases in reverse order: recovery in the morning, trough in the afternoon, and peak in the evening.

Applying these scientific findings, Pink recommends aligning tasks to the time of day as follows [ii]:

• During Peak, perform Analytical tasks: these require head down focus and vigilance, including major decisions.
• During your Trough, perform Administrative tasks: these require less vigilance and less elevated mood. (e.g. routine emails, expense reports)
• During Recovery, perform Insight tasks: these require elevated mood and less vigilance (e.g. conceptual thinking and creativity)

II. Taking Breaks

Pink also discusses evidence that shows performance significantly improves after you take a break. This is especially impactful in the trough of your day. His takeaways from the studies were [iv]:

1. Something is better than nothing (no break at all). Remove yourself from work for any length of time regardless of how it is spent.
2. Physical activity is more beneficial than remaining stationary.
3. Interacting with others is better than spending a break solo. While time alone can refresh – especially for introverts – existing evidence points to the restorative power of spending time with others.
4. Outdoors, surrounded by nature, is better than remaining indoors.
5. Full detachment from work (avoiding work discussions altogether) is preferred over semi-detachment (e.g. incorporating 'shop talk' into lunch conversation).

Pink provides a menu of options for different kinds of breaks (see pg 77). Included is a formula for a power nap which he named ’the nappaccino’ (pg 76). Down a cappuccino, and then take a 26-minute nap. This gives you the benefit of a powernap, while giving the caffeine the necessary time to enter your blood stream and boost your energy upon waking.

Applying Pink’s contributions described thus far, you can generate a personal a user guide on how to best use your mind and body in your day.

III. Forecast and manage your time like an expense budget

The final principle is one I generated out of necessity to better manage my workload. For several years, myself and my director struggled to understand how my time was utilized. We asked questions such as: where is my time going?, how much time do tasks really take?, and what caused us to unknowingly overload or under load my time periodically? In response, I developed a straightforward way to forecast my time in advance of work.

In this I came to understand that productive workdays have two (2) hours that should not be allocated to any specific activity. This accommodates time for four daily habits essential in promoting productivity:

• ‘Get organized’ at the start of the day. e.g. assess what’s in the inbox and the work for the upcoming day, and perform a few, quick administrative tasks. Sometimes this occurs after an early morning meeting.
• ‘Get re-organized’ at the end of the day, with similar tasks to those at the start of the day.
• Handle unplanned tasks ad hoc, as they present themselves during the day (e.g. urgent requests, emergencies.)
• Take a restorative break in the trough of the day – as Pink suggests.

I forecast 30 minutes for each of these habits, 2 hours total. This leaves 6 hours, rather than 8 hours, available each workday for completing tasks on specific work assignments.

To make forecasting manageable, they are done in quarter blocks (3 months) and use ‘good enough’ estimates of time associated with each activity. Whether easy to assemble detailed hours, or gut estimate of ? days (i.e.3 hours) of effort.

This habit of forecasting resulted in an overall view of my time, better understanding of how it was used, and better decisions on how to manage it. Overloads occurred less frequently and, when they did occur, were more consistently foreseen in advance giving me time to accommodate my work appropriately.

IN PRACTICE

I adopted four practices to implement these principles:

1. Reorganize the to-do list,
2. Block the best times for independent work,
3. Take breaks and pace the day.
4. Maintain a work/time allocation forecast.

This section is a setup and how-to guide to my approach. It’s my way, not the only way so use what makes sense for you.

1. Reorganize the to-do list

Organizing my to-do list according to Pink’s model made it easier to align my work with the best time to complete it. This is an example of my weekly to-dos list:

The top sections are the core of the list.

• Analytical and insight are together and delineated by project or client. I tend to complete either type of work in either my peak or recovery periods, so putting these together is simpler.
• Administrative work is separated into scheduling and other work. Scheduling meetings – especially with multiple people – is a work mode on its own, so this is helpful.

At the bottom:

• Topics I want to raise at our team standing weekly meeting and my standing 1-on-1 with my manager are in the lower center and right.
• Tasks that address my ongoing professional development and networking are in the lower left.

I prefer to keep my to-do list on paper and make a new copy each week. This gives me the flexibility to use this format, and a historical record of my work. Even though I would prefer a digital tool, I have not found one that adequately replicates my experience on paper.

2. Block the best times for independent work.

Ask yourself: Why must any hour of the workday be available to anyone who wants or needs to meet? How can I protect and allocate the time when I am best able to complete my independent work?

I address both challenges by placing recurring appointments on my calendar for independent work during my peak and recovery periods. This enhances my time management, and nudges colleagues to request meeting times that are more suitable to my schedule.

Here is an example of a typical week on my calendar:

The appointments are setup as follows:

• Appointments: Blocks of time are allotted for startup and shutdown work, focused work (analytical and insight tasks), lunch, and ongoing professional development & networking. Previously, I scheduled time for an afternoon break and handling unplanned tasks, but now find that working them in around other appointments during the day is easier. I still ensure this time is still addressed in my quarterly forecast.
• Recurrence pattern: I setup these as recurrences for no longer than 6 or 12-month blocks. This eases making future changes without impacting the calendar history.
• Color Categorization: Colors differentiate the work blocks from other appointments, and facilitates a quick view of frequency and length.
• Tentative appointments: (not available in Google Calendar) By marking appointments as “tentative”, I can signal colleagues that the time could be adjusted to accommodate their schedule. Note: I sometimes encourage meeting with colleagues during peak or recovery blocks when we need to design/co-create something.
• No reminders: Notification reminders are set to “None” to remove unnecessary alerts.

To assist colleagues in scheduling meetings with me, I will provide this brief explanation: "Here’s how to read my calendar: free is preferred, tentative is available if need-be, and busy blocks can sometimes move."

In practice, accommodations are regularly necessary when many calendars conflicts, colleagues have limited flexibility (clients, managers, and executives), or activities take priority.

When these conflicts occur, I adjust the length of the block or remove them altogether as shown here:

When I face major deadlines or have limited availability, I will designate specific occurrences for a task, change it to show as “busy,” and enter a task title.

Finally – whatever happens – I will always keep 'Startup', 'Shutdown', and 'Lunch' on my calendar and move them to fit into my day. I learned over time I will spend on each of these if they aren’t on my calendar, so marking it ensures I make time, know when they will occur.

Altogether, these tactics help me organize time for mind-body flow, anticipate overload, decompress where I can, and accommodate when necessary.

3. Take breaks and pace the day.

From the macro view, I have consistently included 30 minutes for a daily (non-lunch) break in my work/time forecast.

From the micro (daily) view, I tested many approaches to pace my work and include breaks into my day. I discovered a couple of things.

1. I take breaks (30-60 min) at lunch and in the trough phase of the afternoon.
2. I’ll put lunch on the calendar, and work the afternoon break in ad hoc. I used to put the afternoon break on the calendar, but it would move around to accommodate meetings. It was easier for me to take it ad hoc because my afternoons are not overloaded. I’d recommend scheduling it if your afternoons are more regularly intense.
3. When I need to watch the time, I use a modified Pomodoro Technique to pace myself.

Here's my variation on the Pomodoro Technique. I set a timer for 20 minutes or less, and begin a task. Each time the timer ends, I briefly pause, check-in with myself, and ask:

• Where am I?
• What do I want/need to accomplish next?
• How’s my mind and body?
• What’s best for myself and my work right now? (e.g. take a brief break (e.g. 2-5 minutes), move to a new task after the break, etc.

I will take a break if I need it. Then I'll determine the amount for the next block. If I need to change tasks or start an appointment after the next block, I will shorten its length by a few minutes to accommodate a break in between. This adds back in breaks many of us lost in pandemic move to work-from-home.

Siri made adoption easier: “Hey Siri, 20 minutes.” (you don't even need to say "timer)

4. Maintain a work/time forecast

Practicing the first three habits has increased my awareness of the amount of time tasks require, and honed the precision of my estimations. This enabled me to craft a straightforward method of forecasting my workload each quarter.

The result the dashboard shown below for monitoring and decision-making:

The dashboard shows weeks of effort on activities in my work. The weeks of effort above is calculated from two hidden columns shown below.

The goal is useful approximations, not absolute precision.

• When precise calculations are easy to make, hours are entered. For example, a weekly 90-minute meeting is easily calculated by entering = 1.5 * 12 in the Hours column.
• When preferred, ? or full-day approximations are entered in the days column.

In these estimations, time for the four daily routines I discussed earlier – startup, shutdown, afternoon break, and unplanned tasks – are addressed by expressing days-of-effort as 6-hour days, rather than 8-hour days, in the first blue column. This approach is also used to calculate the weeks shown in the final dashboard

I keep categorization simple and discovered these lessons (listed from bottom to top):

• Time Away: Always estimate time away.
• Overhead: This reflects the cost of being a work. So, put here activities everyone on the team shares, such as the minimum meetings (a team meeting & 1on1 with your manger), time for ongoing learning and networking, and time to work on a passion project unrelated to your assignments.
• Projects & Ongoing Assignments: What remains should be work assignments specific to your job on the team. This includes activities related to managerial duties (1on1s with direct reports, handling personnel issues), committee appointments (e.g. hours spent in meetings and working independently).

I regularly update the forecast and share with my director each quarter. This informs monitoring and decisions on my work assignments. Over time, this method enabled my director and me to align our decisions for managing my workload.

IN CLOSING

So now you may be thinking, “The goal sounds great, but the tactics seem daunting — just another thing to do!” Do not swallow it all at once. Start small, try one practice that makes sense for you. Test it, tune it. Build from there.

Like acquiring any new skill, this routine will feel mechanical and ‘clunky’ to start and, with practice, become a natural habit.

Also, it is not to follow every day. I still enjoy days without schedules, timers, and precise designation of time blocks — days when I do whatever I want whenever I feel like it. Who needs to be scheduled every moment of every day!?!

What made the journey worth it for me was the synchrony and flow I gained between my mind, body, and work.

Whatever you take away, remember these principles:

1. There are 3 periods of energy in your day: peak, trough, and recovery
2. Taking breaks will boost your energy and alertness.
3.  Forecasting enables you to anticipate and plan management of your workload.

****

Postscript: Thanks to Barbara Meriweather & Jasmine Meriweather for their feedback, and Susan Taylor for her thorough editing.

****

References:

[i] Descriptions in opening sentences paraphrased and adapted from “States of Being” model by Matt Taylor and Rob Evans. Will be published in next edition of Collaboration Code: Models. Imaginal Labs, LLC

[ii] “The Secret of Perfect Timing | Dan Pink | RSA Replay.” 17:21 – 17:36. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbicgT4KrWc

[iii] When: The Scientific Secretes of Perfect Timing pg 22

[iv] When: The Scientific Secretes of Perfect Timing pg 60-63